Just read in Nature today that Adrian Smith (of MCMC fame!) was to head the search for a replacement to ERC and Marie Curie research funding in the UK. Adrian, whom I first met in Sherbrooke, Québec, in June 1989, when he delivered one of his first talks on MCMC, is currently the director of the Alan Turing Institute in London, of which Warwick is a constituent. (Just for the record, Chris Skimore is the current Science minister in Theresa May’s government and here is what he states and maybe even think about her Brexit deal: “It’s fantastic for science, it’s fantastic for universities, it’s fantastic for collaboration”) I am actually surprised at the notion of building a local alternative to the ERC when the ERC includes many countries outside the European Union and even outside Europe…

In conjunction with the official (if not state-) visit of Donald Trump to the UK, a list of demonstrations throughout the kingdom, on top of the national demonstration in London on July 13, Together Against Trump, jointly organised by the Stop Trump Coalition (STC) and Stand Up To Trump (SUTT). (Even stoptrump.uk wrong address returns an appropriate heading!)

A recent news editorial in Nature (15 March issue) reminded me of the lectures Louis Aslett gave at the Gregynog Statistical Conference last week, on the advanced use of cryptography tools to analyse sensitive and private data. Lectures that reminded me of a graduate course I took on cryptography and coding, in Paris 6, and which led me to visit a lab at the Université de Limoges during my conscripted year in the French Navy. With no research outcome. Now, the notion of using encrypted data towards statistical analysis is fascinating in that it may allow for efficient inference and personal data protection at the same time. As opposed to earlier solutions of anonymisation that introduced noise and data degradation, not always providing sufficient protection of privacy. Encryption that is also the notion at the basis of the Nature editorial. An issue completely missing from the paper, while stressed by Louis, is that this encryption (like Bitcoin) is costly, in order to deter hacking, and hence energy inefficient. Or limiting the amount of data that can be used in such studies, which would turn the idea into a stillborn notion.